Letters to the editor

Published: July 5, 2012 4:00AM

Thanks for Anne's Army support

Editor:

On behalf of the Anne M. Wolf Foundation Board of Directors, I would like to thank the Wayne County community for its generous support of the second annual Anne's Army 5K: Race to Battle Breast Cancer held on Saturday, June 23, on Ohio State's OARDC campus in Wooster.

Proceeds from the race will benefit the Anne M. Wolf Fund for Breast Cancer Research at the Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center-Arthur G. James Cancer Center and Richard J. Solove Research Institute.

Approximately 40,000 women will die of breast cancer in the U.S. this year. Excluding skin cancer, breast cancer is the most frequently diagnosed cancer among U.S. women. Triple negative breast cancer (of which Anne (Gortner) Wolf was diagnosed) is very aggressive, generally affects young women, and often does not respond to chemotherapy or other treatments.

The Anne Wolf Fund at the OSU CCC-James will fund research in three areas: 1) discovering new drugs for triple negative breast cancer; 2) testing these new drugs in clinical trials; and 3) understanding the biology or what makes triple negative breast cancers resistant to most chemotherapies.

Thank you again to all participants, volunteers and sponsors for making a difference in helping to improve the outcome of women with triple negative breast cancer, which ultimately will lead to curing this disease. For additional information about Anne's Army, please visit the Foundation website online at www.annesarmy.org.

Amy Lahmers

Anne M. Wolf

Breast Cancer Foundation

Orrville

Moocher, looters and truly needy

Editor:

Our society has four classes of economic actors -- moochers, looters, traders and the truly needy. Every time money changes hands, it does so from and to one of these actors.

Moochers are those folks who feel entitled to that which they have not earned. They are the takers who feel entitled to be given alms from the government. Their claim on the property of others is simply based on their need. Moochers need food, clothing, shelter,and more; but rather than apply their brain or brawn to a task of production to satisfy those needs, they rely on guilt and government corruption to impel those who have earned their property to supply funds to satisfy the moocher's needs. Moochers constitute a dependent class of citizens.

Looters are those who cater to the moochers. Looters go by many names; politicians, lobbyists, special interest groups, corrupt businessmen, and organized labor, to name a few. They advocate confiscating the wealth of citizens so they can fund their redistribution of wealth social programs. Looters act with the might of government power to coerce and force compliance. There is nothing fair about government confiscating the property of one citizen and giving that property to another citizen. All looters are contemptible since they, like moochers, add nothing of value to the economy but merely sap the life blood out of it.

Traders engage in exchanging something of value for something of value. We are all traders when we purchase anything or exchange an hour's time for an hour's pay. Traders could be individuals, businesses, and even government entities; but what makes them traders is the understanding that value is traded for value.

Entrepreneurs are a special breed of traders with the unique ability to combine resources to create a product or service that consumers want. They are also willing to accept risk of failure. Entrepreneurs are the most important traders since they are the ones who create productive jobs for others. Entrepreneurs create the environment in which the workers can produce goods.

I have no room to describe the truly needy, but we all know who they are and we voluntarily support them.

Can you identity people in each of these groups? Which group makes our economy stronger and which group or groups make it weaker? Which group engages in activities that are sustainable? Which group do you want your children and grandchildren to emulate?

Gary Harper

Orrville

Want to leave your comments?

Did any of the left hear the news that the Obama saved GM now produces and builds 7 of every 10 cars out of the U.S.?If so are you blaming Obama for shipping jobs overseas?If not then why not?I wonder what the union thinks about that?Could that be why the unions are having their own convention for President?I wonder what the response will be?

July 10, 2012 12:35PM

Buzz, can you identify just one job that Mitt Romney shipped overseas? Jobs migrate to lower cost of labor nations because the home nation has driven the cost of domestic labor to unreasonably high levels. How does that happen? One cause is your beloved labor unions who lobby to get higher wages for their members without increasing their labor production. Another cause is government regulations that contribute to increased cost of employing human and other resources. Among them are OSHA, EPA, Labor Relations Act, Dodd-Frank, Sarbanes Oxley, Federal Reserve Act, minimum wage laws, to name a few. If you want to single out any entity to place blame upon for jobs migrating away from the United States, blame the rightful culprit - the federal government! For the record, I am not Pro Romney; I am anti big government.

July 10, 2012 12:26PM

dman, have you every owned a business? I have. Have you ever been a leadership position, responsible for the productive output of others? I have. Do you believe you can instill loyalty and high performance by “screwing your employees every change you get” or might that be more probable if you extend loyalty and respect toward them? Are you thinking this through or merely parroting sound bites? Granted, there was a time in our nation’s history when “robber barons” took advantage of their workforce when jobs were scarce and people had little choice. That is not the case today. Employers use every tactic possible to attract and retain good workers and increase productive efficiencies. Entrepreneurs continue to create new jobs in spite of increasingly onerous federal regulations. They must compete with each other to attract and retain the best workers to accomplish their goals. Do you really think they attract high quality workers by “screwing” them? Think it through and present a sound argument for abusing your workforce to improve efficiency and productive output. If you give it serious thought you will see the fallacies in your premise. By the way, the reason many companies are setting on cash is because of uncertainty. The Fed-manipulated interest rates are too low and sound investment decisions cannot be made without knowing the real cost of money. Another reason for uncertainty is not knowing what new rule or law our federal government will spring upon businesses in the near future; or what those new costs will be. One of the reasons the so-called stimulus does not work is that businesses will not make investments if they do not think they can profit from them. When the government creates artificially low interest rates and prints more money that could lead to more inflation, businesses are unwilling to take undetermined risks. The government IS the problem with our economy. Businesses are not evil. Entrepreneurs create jobs not the federal government. This is so basic; I struggle to see how so many people cannot understand it.

July 8, 2012 2:14PM

DemocRATS founded the ku klux klan, democRATS filibustered the civil
rights act, democRATS fought the amendment that freed the slaves,
democRATS instituted the jim crow laws, democRATS fought for
segregation, democRATS commissioned the so-called negro project (to
exterminate black babies), democrats implemented gun control laws (to
disarm 'uppity' blacks) and even today, democrats instruct the blacks
they look down upon, that they are helpless, impotent victims who would
starve to death in the streets without bread crumbs from government
handouts. Democrats are, always have been, and always shall be the
oppressor and the party of racism.
Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, all the so-called civil rights leaders today participate in the extermination of black babies so they can become wealthy. They are racists and hypocrites, but then aren't all blacks who worship these sell outs of their own race. When one considers the 95% rate at which blacks voted for Obama, one is forced to conclude blacks in general are rabidly racist... and have been programmed to be by the democRAT party who ironically is (and has always been) the party of racism.

July 8, 2012 10:10AM

Exactly, the unions that have destroyed through greed all the good paying jobs, so the only jobs left are the Walmart variety.

July 8, 2012 6:50AM

gary said, "My innate belief is that employers will treat their employees well as it is in their best self-interest to do so." ha ha Man, you have your head in the sand. Companies for years have screwed their employees every chance they get. They are happy the recession happened because it gave them an excuse to fire well paid employees and replace them with lower paid employees. It gave them a reason to not give employees raises for the last 5 years. It gave them a reason to cut benefits. All in the name of giving the CEO huge raises. Why do you think that companies are sitting on trillions of dollars of cash while their employees get paid less?

July 7, 2012 6:16PM

What a ignorant statement when it has been the unions that have destroyed through greed all the good paying jobs.

July 7, 2012 9:34AM

dman, the concept of “fairness” has become a political football. In reality, fair means that both parties enter into an agreement, without coercion, because it is in the best interest of both parties to do so. The wage must be fair; otherwise people would refuse it! Our federal government has stepped WAY beyond its boundaries and permeates virtually every aspect of our daily lives. It is difficult to say what would occur in our economy without the heavy hand of government imposing its myriad rules and regulations. However, as a former business owner, I paid my employees well above the minimum wage to attract and retain high quality workers because my clients deserved high quality performance and were willing to pay for it. My innate belief is that employers will treat their employees well as it is in their best self-interest to do so. Why do you not trust employers? The employees are free to leave if unsatisfied and the costs of replacement (recruitment and training) are high; so a self-interested employer would treat employees with respect and loyalty. The reason for the high number of part-time workers is simply a matter of cost. The costs are high because of the government mandated benefits for full time employees. The heavy hand of government is the culprit rather than the employer!

July 7, 2012 9:02AM

Gary, businesses can not be trusted to pay a fair wage. They keep employees on as temp for years so they don't have to pay a fair wage. They are taking advantage of the many people unemployed now to reduce wages and not pay a fair wage.

July 5, 2012 3:45PM

tpaine, Answer: I would certainly oppose any increase in a government MANDATED minimum wage. The government looters send a false signal to the market when they artificially set any price! Let the market determine the price for labor; if a worker produces more, he should be paid more - that is basic economics. As far as my ignorance of facts…I noticed you failed to shed any light on your charge of ignorance against me. A “living wage” is government propaganda - and you have fallen for it! People should earn what they are worth; if that is not possible, then accept a lower paying job or an additional job to boost one’s income. Another alternative if one is unhappy with one’s earnings potential would be to increase one’s skills. Keep the looters out of the market! Let the moochers fend for themselves! As for the truly needy, they cannot be abandoned - but the truly needy are those who are unable to provide for themselves. We have far too many moochers masquerading as truly needy and a willing bunch of government looters who are all too willing to give other people’s money to those moochers.

July 5, 2012 9:09AM

"I have no room to describe the truly needy, but we all know who they are and we voluntarily support them."
This says it all as it demonstrates the ignorance of the facts as they are. Question: Would you be willing to increase the minimum wage so those who are working 50 hours of work a week have a living wage and do not assistance for either food, health, or heat? What is your solution? Darwinism - oh I forgot that is not allowed in the conservative vocabulary.